Milk Tea
by DazzlingClouds
Summary: Sora lost a tennis match and Taichi offers her a bottle of milk tea. One-shot.


I don't own Digimon.

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As Sora alighted from the train, she sighed. The smell of rain was so strong, the raindrops so deafening. She searched her bag - she knew she hadn't brought one, but just in case she did – but to no avail. Pulling her tennis racket bag back onto its position on her shoulder, she dragged her feet to a bench within the station and plonked down, watching the rain outside pour aimlessly.

 _Should I just run home in the rain?_ She thought. She wanted desperately to hide in her room and cry. She looked up at the clouds, wondering when they would drift away. Her mind, for the umpteenth time that day, drifted to that tennis match. _I should have won. I should have won._

She saw herself standing on the tennis court again, racket in hand, knees bent, ready to smack the ball back into the opponent's court. This last shot would make or break her. Her opponent, a tall, muscular girl, matched Sora in almost all aspects – agility, reaction times, power. All except endurance, which Sora had built up from playing long matches of soccer as a little girl. Yet Sora did not expect that her opponent would put up such a good fight, and she knew that she had to take every shot and make it count. She could not let her guard down. In her mind, the scores made themselves heard regularly, like the ringing of a telephone call. Every cell in her body was electrified. After all, their scores were so close, it was as though they were taking turns to talk in a conversation.

The ball came, and Sora sent it flying to the opponent's court with all the strength she could. The opponent hit it back with grace – Sora could tell that she was tired as it did not have the same power as it had when the match had begun. Sora raised her arm and delivered the last fatal blow. The ball soared in the air like a rocket and sped in the direction of the unguarded space. At that crucial moment, the ball grazed the net, just as Sora hoped, and went across the net. The opponent stretched out towards the ball. Sora almost laughed at the flash of desperation on the opponent's face, but to her horror, the ball had bounced outside of the line.

Everyone had gathered around her afterward, patting her shoulder and offering words of consolation. "It's okay, you're still second-place and that's saying a lot!" She heard her close friend Mimi say. Yet Sora could not lift her spirits up. It was her last match of high school, and she knew that she could have won. It was a small miscalculation, but one that cost her dearly.

Now in hindsight, she felt embarrassed that she had behaved so coldly towards her friends. They were there to support her, and they looked so ready to celebrate the end of the championship, but she just could not find the energy to be _happy._ Finally, as though she had burst their bubble, she told them that she had to hurry home because her mom needed help with the flower shop.

On the bench, facing the pouring rain, she fought the image of her making that last slam. If only she had not used so much strength, if only she was not so impatient to end the game, if only she knew… She felt the ache of disappointment in her chest, and she wished the match had not ended that way.

At that moment, she felt the bench creak, and she instinctively inched towards her end of the bench. But the strange man on her right copied her movement and inched closer towards her. She turned her head in curiosity and saw a familiar face.

"Hey, Sora."

Sora looked away from him. "Leave me alone, Taichi."

The brown-haired boy chuckled and rested his arm comfortably on the back of the bench that Sora was leaning on. "That's what Yamato said too." When she did not reply, he tried to think of what to say.

"I thought you were in a hurry to get home." She still did not reply. He sighed, and placed a bottle of milk tea that he had bought earlier in her hands. "Here, congratulations. It was a good match. Since you're too busy to celebrate, I thought that you would…" He had barely finished his sentence when he heard Sora sobbing. He turned to look at her, and he was shocked to see tears streaming down her cheeks. He quickly wrapped his arms around her and tucked her underneath his chin. Feeling her gently pushing away, he hugged her even tighter.

Finally, after a while, she calmed down, and Taichi loosened his grip. He could see her tear-streaked face, and he watched Sora wipe her eyes with the back of her hand. Avoiding his gaze, she said, "What are you doing here, Taichi?."

Taichi shrugged, "I couldn't leave you alone." He touched the bottle cap of the drink, and said, "You see, I really wanted to give you the milk tea." To this Sora gave him a small shove on the shoulder.

He smiled. "You played really, really well, though. Don't beat yourself up over it."

"It's just… I'm very disappointed."

"I understand how you feel." At this moment, Taichi snatched the bottle from her hands and opened it. Handing back the bottle to her, he said playfully, "If you're not going to drink this, then I will."

Sora smiled and took a sip. Milk tea was definitely going to be her new comfort drink from now on. "Thanks, Taichi. Even though you suck at comforting girls."

"Hey! You little ungrateful brat. Come on, your mom is waiting for you. Let's go, I'll walk you home." He opened his huge umbrella, took her bag and slung it over his shoulders before she could respond. Then, they walked out into the rain, Sora hooking onto Taichi's arm.

The heavy rain did not show them any mercy, and they were still nearly drenched from the rain. The strong winds that accompanied it caused them to shiver in cold. But Taichi was warm, so Sora stayed close to him. As they walked, she stole glances at him, and in response he put his arm around her shoulders, trying to shield more of her under his umbrella.

Later, after they had bid goodbye, Sora emptied the contents of her bag, which was damp from the rain. Seeing the bottle of milk tea that she had hastily thrown into her bag when they left the train station, she decided to take a sip. As she unscrewed the cap, she noticed a tiny scribble of a racket, accompanied by a message written in black marker, which said, "You'll always be number one in my heart."

Sora smiled, her chest warm.

 _Since when did he become so sweet?_

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It's been a long time since I wrote anything here. I haven't watched tri because I'm just too busy (or lazy... haha). BUT I've always been stalking this website, looking for new fics to read. Where are the Taiora writers? Have we all grown up (lol).

I guess the craziest thing that happened recently was that Trump got elected? o_O Lol he's the epitome of the phrase 'never say never'...


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